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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24832885">Tick of the Clock</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/meanderingsoul/pseuds/meanderingsoul'>meanderingsoul</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Episode Tag, Ficlet, Gen, Introspection, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Season/Series 07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 04:48:03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>586</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24832885</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/meanderingsoul/pseuds/meanderingsoul</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>May was unnaturally still under sedation. No suspicious glances at the different monitors. No arguing about anything that might make her sleepy. Flat on her back without a blanket and somehow not snoring.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Phil Coulson &amp; Skye | Daisy Johnson, Phil Coulson/Melinda May</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>67</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Tick of the Clock</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This ficlet is placed in the aftermath of episode 7x2. I started it that weekend, but RL happened instead. Enjoy -M</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>People drifted out of the main rooms after they finally landed.</p><p>The Zephyr was quieter than Phil was used to. Those months living on board, there’d been a general hum of activity. Even the engines sounded a little different.</p><p>They were sleeping in shifts now, probably for the foreseeable future if the jump schedule was going to be this unpredictable. Mack had made Jemma go in the first group. For the rest of them there was research to be done.</p><p>Phil was pretty sure he didn’t sleep anymore. He wasn’t tired. His shoulder and knuckles weren’t sore. The whisky he’d drank hadn’t had any effect or made its presence known. Those were all perks. Kind of.</p><p>He kept pacing back over near the medical space, finally just went in.</p><p>May was unnaturally still under sedation. No suspicious glances at the different monitors. No arguing about anything that might make her sleepy. Flat on her back without a blanket and somehow not snoring.</p><p>It wasn't like her.</p><p>He started quietly digging through cabinets for a blanket. He couldn't wake her like this. She’d sleep through getting covered up right now. It was a good thing.</p><p>Phil was pretty sure he never wanted to see her look at him like that again.</p><p>“Is she cold?” Daisy’s voice was low behind him, still wearing the green dress but her hair was starting to slip out of where she’d had to quickly pin it up.</p><p>Something about her looked a little different to his eyes and it wasn’t just the blonde. It was the time.</p><p>Phil made himself smile. “No idea. She'd just rather sleep with a blanket.”</p><p>Daisy’s mouth twisted in a way he recognized from all the eagerly prying questions he’d gotten used to at some point. He remembered that face so many times from the Playground base.</p><p>No. The Playground was gone. It was gone because he and May’s LMDs had killed each other.</p><p>“You uh...you remember how she likes to...?” Daisy trailed off.</p><p>“You remember how we all lived on the Bus together for months, right?” He’d known May didn’t like sleeping uncovered since their twenties, but the Bus would do.</p><p>“Right. Right.”</p><p>Phil gave the blanket half-forgotten in his hands a little shake, let the edge of it hit the bed just past May’s feet and let it float down. She didn’t even twitch.</p><p>He normally would have given her shoulder a squeeze. He didn’t.</p><p>“May just never, said a lot to me about it. I was trying to focus on getting ready to literally leave the planet, on plans. So I don’t know how much there was... I’m not really sure what you remember.”</p><p>“I know<em> about</em> more of the last couple years than I have visuals or memory of, if that helps," he said. It was a weird concept.</p><p>“Yeah. Yeah that makes sense,” Daisy said, but she was staring past him at May.</p><p>“Are you...ok?” she asked.</p><p>Ok. Was he ok with what they’d done to get his help? He kinda felt like he had to be. The situation was desperate and unprecedented, even though that seemed to happen to them literally all the time. Was he ok in general? Ok right now? Ok with what felt like the stranger staring at him out of May’s eyes, with the realization that just two years and everyone looked older?</p><p>Phil wasn't sure it really mattered in the long run.</p><p>He gave Daisy’s shoulder a careful squeeze and went back to work.</p><p> </p>
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